My annual Helmet rant

Look at this picture. Question #1 - What do you see? Question #2 - What don't you see?

How about this one?

I see a bunch of fit people. Not a fat one in the bunch. I wonder where we could find this group in the US?

What I don't see are helmets. Not a one...in either picture.

When I am driving through my neighborhood I see lots of kids outside playing. In some of the yards there are toys strung from one end to the other. There are bats and balls and bikes laying on their sides. All of the kids I see playing are smiling, happy and healthy.

Are helmets a good idea? Of course. If you hit your head on hard ground, cement or metal, any bonehead could agree that it would be better to have something protecting it. But I say that helmets are not the point. Far more people die of obesity because their soccer mom thinks their kid is safer sitting in front of the television playing a video game then being outside riding their bike without a helmet.


1. We need more cyclists, better bike lanes and less TV and video games more than we need helmets.

2. Don't confuse helmets with helmet legislation. Helmet legislation may cause a reduction in the number of cyclists, which can be counterproductive if we are trying to promote cycling. I might even go so far as to accuse governments of shifting responsibility to the heads of cyclists and away from the drivers of cars by putting cyclists in such lousy infrastructure with lousy drivers.

3. We need better biking infrastructure to separate us from stupid drivers.

Old Cap

Yeah, about my last post. As it turns out, Rich Wince IS the real deal - winning the 42nd edition of the Old Capitol Criterium - cat 4 division. That, along with his impressive win at Clear Lake last fall should earn him an upgrade.

Lookout Finchford!

Nice work Rich.

Iowa City Road Race Report

Woke up on Saturday with a sore throat and a fever. It was raining at a pretty good clip in dez minez', but I had my fingers crossed that things might be brighter in Iowa City. I loaded up the car and pointed it east.

It was only 44 degrees when I left home and the forecast was for steady temps and intermittent rain all day. Even if I didn't race I had nothing better to do, so I opted to head over and root on the PRC girls.

I stiff cup o Starbucks dark roast did nothing to make me feel any better, and by the time I arrived in Kalona cheese country, I had pretty much talked myself out of racing. It was 10:30. I drove the course once to checkout how that cat 4 girls were doing.

Now it was 10:45. Trek, Jelly Belly, IS Corp, and a few other hot shots were there and I just couldn't see myself watching them roll off without me. Besides, the rain had stopped, even if temporarily. Screw it! I threw the Zipps on the steed and headed to registration.

After a quick warm up and pre-race instructions from our lovely race official, we we're off.

Usually Iowa City weekend is marked by heavy winds out of the west - guttering all but the most fit and aggressive bike handlers. But this year it was not the case. There was only a 15 mph wind straight out of the north.

The laps were fast with attack after attack. But the peleton did not let anything get away. At one point, a group of 5-6 of us got up the road about 20 seconds. Since Brain Jensen was with us I thought Trek might let it stick, but after a few minutes were were all back together and the attack/relay show continued.

Finally with a half a lap to go, the right group of 5 slowly rolled off the front. Sometimes the "attack without attacking" approach works nicely. This proved to be true, as it did not initiate any response from the group. As they rolled away I had a decision - chase or hope that some of the other independent riders would pull them back. I opted to sit in.

When the lead group was far enough out, the fight for 1st losers club began. To my surprise, I still had good snap in my old legs and responded. Steve Tilford and I got off the front with 1 mile to go and I thought we might hold it. But the group swarmed us with 500 meters to go.

I think I finished around 4-5 in the field sprint.

I hate to ever get used to feeling ok about loosing, but considering how I felt when I woke up and the strength of the other racers, I'm happy to have finished in the money.

Congrats to Piggy for his nice 2nd place finish in the 3's, Maria for 2nd in the cat 4 girlies, Keely and Kelli for 6th & 7th respectively in the women's open and my buddy Richy Rich for effectively waisting the best fitness in the state ;)

Doug Smith

This came in today from Tim McCoy. Everyone, please keep Doug, his family and his friends in your prayers. Tim McCoy To my cycling friends, friends and family, Today started out like most Saturdays as the spring finally begins to dawn in Alaska, uh Iowa. We left Rasmussen's Bike Shop at 7am headed toward Winterset. I have cycled on this road twenty to thirty times. There was a group of eight of us who turned around in Winterset. It was a glorious day and an awesome ride. We were making our way back to Des Moines when from behind us a horn started to blow. It got louder and louder and then you could feel something large very close to the group, way to close for anyone's safety. Then, in a split second tragedy struck our group. I was at the front of the group and close to the white line on the right. Our friend Doug Smith was right next to me on my left. We were riding at about twenty miles per hour. The next thing I knew is I felt pressure against the left side of my body and bike. In my mind I said I am going to crash. The next moment I heard screaming as the truck raced past us. The force pushed me to the side of the road but I was still standing and ok. I looked back and there was our friend Doug in the middle of the road. The girls continued to scream now with anger at the truck that literally ran over our friend and kept going. The emotions at moments like this are legion. I started to cry. I started to curse, filled with anger but oddly enough not at the man who did this but at the fact Doug was in the road possibly dying and I was helpless to do a damn thing about it. I prayed dear God please do not let Doug die. I felt grateful, riding out of Winterset I was in Doug's position in the pace line. This could just as easily have been me. I was stunned. i could not believe this was actually happening. What happened over the next few hours was amazing. Neighbors came out of their homes to assist Doug. Mark, one of our riders whom I do not know very well got on his stomach in the middle of the road and held Doug's hand and felt his pulse. At first he was unconscious, then he awoke not knowing what had just happened to him. I do not know if I could have done what Mark did. It was such a simple act and yet so profoundly powerful at the moment. Doug's beautiful carbon fibre bike lay in three pieces. I stared at it for a few seconds or minutes. I turned and walked up the road away from Doug's body. I then noticed two trucks barreling toward us. Of course they would, they had no idea. I waved my arms to stop them and told them what had happened. One young man described a truck he had passed and asked me if this was the truck. i said yes. The man turned around and caught up to the truck. The man who ran over Doug did come back to the scene probably a half hour later. The delay was good because the anger toward him was huge. I hugged Maria and Keely as they cried. I could not cry at this moment. The Ambulances came. The attendants worked efficiently to stabilize Doug. He was alive! The Ambulance left and there we were, seven people who had our own wounds to deal with. Trauma needs meaning and significance given to it in order to heal. This made no sense. It had no meaning I could think of. The actions of the farmer, senseless. Surely he did not do this on purpose. Cyclists on the road are incredibly vulnerable. All of us who ride know it. We all have our stories. As I searched for meaning Keely's dad Rick pulled up. John Reed pulled up. Barb Standish pulled up. Spontaneous hugging began taking place everywhere. We were all alive, crying, smiling, hugging, expressing our gratitude for each other and the various roles everyone played to deal with this tragedy. In the midst of our busy lives it came to me. People, relationships, love that is what matters, that is what gave this meaning. A senseless farmer and our friend Doug taught me that this morning. Everyone went to the hospital immediately except me. I was quiet and on the verge of tears on the way home. Sitting next to Barb reminded me of how short life is and how quickly it can be taken away. I went home and showered. I ate. Then, I sort of woke up and knew I needed to be with my friends. I was scared that one of our friends would not be alive when I arrived. Barb and I walked into the emergency family waiting area to find Doug's family, his wife, his daughter, his dad, his mom, Rick, Keely, Heather, John and the hospital chaplain. "Doug is going to be all right". He has a fractured skull, a broken pelvis, a torn urethra but he will recover. In spite of his injuries I cannot tell you how good it was to know he was alive and would recover! Sally, Doug's wife thanked us all and said if it were not for us Doug might be dead. I hold back the tears as I write this right now. You know, I might be dead if it were not for all of you. I needed to write this to you all for me. From the bottom of my heart thank you for whatever role you play in my life. I am so grateful to be alive and to know such wonderful people like you. For those of you who pray please pray for Doug and his family. Tim Tim McCoy Tim@HealthyForLifeUSA.com

The meltdown is complete.

Note to Lou: Rumor on the street is that you need to give me a NEW update? Out of retirement already? Let's catch up.

My Response:

Hi My Brother,

Indeed. My meltdown has come full circle ;)

At the risk of sounding like even more of a drama queen than I probably already do, I had a bout with cancer (believe it or not), and some surgery on Monday. It was malignant, but it is all gone. What remains is a chunk missing from my lower right eye lid and 60 stitches in my back where a large mass was removed.

Like I said in my email, "it's never one thing" and the health issues were just part of it. But the response last week from all of our cycling friends was humbling. Then, seeing everyone at my sale (at one time I counted 35 people in my garage), made me think about how much cycling is in my blood. I have never felt stronger and am riding like a banshee right now.

So the meltdown lasted about 5.5 days. I think that's acceptable once every 40 or so years. It culminated with the purchase of an old corvette that will probably rest under a tarp in my garage only to be driven on an occassional sunny Sunday afternoon when there is no bike race.

Not only am I "all in" the race game, but I have set my sights on winning a couple of stars and stripe jerseys (in addition to total Midwest annihilation).

See you out there!

Trip to Silcon Valley

Just got home from 4 days in paradise. I took a few days off and went out to check on our pal DP (a.k.a. DQ). As many of you know, he accepted his dream job working as a professor at Specialized Bikes. Specialized has an education center called Specialized Bikes Component University - SBCU. For more info check here.

So, I headed out to hang out, ride and get a custom fitting done.

Custom Bike Fit

Donny scheduled some time at Concept Cycles. They have a state-of-the-art facility where Donny completed my custom fitting. When I say it was comprehensive I mean we spent just under 3 hours not including the usual 45 minute interview to access my goals (since he has coached me for almost 10 years).

In the end, he made several changes to not only my bike set-up (raised my saddle height, move my saddle forward. Raise my stem (resulting in lowering my overall presentation to the wind), but made significant changes to my shoe and cleat set-up. With each adjustment he recorded new video from the front and sides. The subtle, incremental changes were almost shocking when we compared the first video with the final video. Not only did I get a great fitting, but I learned so much about my body and how the components can either work with, or against me. It was truly eye-opening.

The next day I got a good change to ride for several hours mixed terrain to fell how the new fit instantly produced results in performance and comfort.

This is the waiting area at the bike fit studio. Concept Cycles charges $300 for a custom fit.

It is hard to see from the this pic, but the monitor is 60" wide. Also note on the wall to the left there were opaque images of races being alternated via a projector. Very nice touch. Also notice the very cool backlighting displaying a nice selection of peddles. Right below the large monitor is one of 3 video cameras that capture every angle.

DQ doing a track stand in front ot IBM corporate headquarters. Morgan Hill is smack in the center of silicon valley.

Although this area is not necessarily known for its wineries, there are dozens in the area. One of my favorite stops after a hard day in the saddle was a nice wine bar called "The Reserve". Lindsey and I got well aquainted.

Again, apologies for my poor camera phone. I did not loose any weight despite riding roughly 300 milkes in 4 days. One of the reasons was the increadible California cuisine. Pictured here is a delicious barbqued pulled pork sandwich with smashed purple potatoes.

The rides were over the top - perfect! Great climbs, little traffic and spectactular views. Pictured here is a nice section of switchbacks. Notice the grape vines in the distance. Lots of those around.

This section of road was part of the 2005 Tour of California. It was also the location where Palo Bettini and Tom Boonen were filmed for the Specialized commercial (the one where Palo is clicking though the gears and he says "I am Spacialized").

On day #1 I arrived early enough to join the noon class ride. Each week students from retailers from around the world come for training on products and bike fits. Each day for at least 2 hours, the students and most of the employees head out for a bike ride. Monday through Thursday the pace is pretty mellow because there are many defferent levels. But on Fridays, things heat up. I got to ride with 2-3 former pros and national champions. We headed out for a 90 minute hammer fest that included a nice 4-5 mile 6% climb.

Arriving at the front entrance. Pretty impressive little place.

A "gassed" Louie at the top of Coe Climb. After the Friday hammerfest everyone else headed back to the office (if you could call it that) while I took a stroll out to Coe Climb. As it turned out, Coe was 10 miles of 16+%. Notice the mist in the backgorund. I am not sure of the elevation. I'm pretty sure I was on cloud 9.

Busy on the bike

Just finished a 30 hour week. Been a while since I've done that.

20 hrs on the bike 10 hrs at the gym (yoga, swimming, resistance).

Yesterday Senior Wince and I rode gravel for just under 4 hours. I sent out an invite to my usual suspects and received one reply: Dude, it's raining and 25 degrees, Have fun. I did. I did.

We headed westward to 74th and then south past Jordan Creek mall before diving into the gravel. We had not gone 2 miles when we ran into Brian Duffy coming in on his mountain bike. Despite my encouragement, Duffy would have no interest in joining us.

The wind was out of the SSE, so when we turned south and it hit me on the cheek I stung. But this was an A-typical day when I actually dressed appropriately. Usually I over dress and then sweat, and then freeze. But today wore just the right layers of clothing and my foot warmers were working well.

As we approached the DMACC Technology complex and the last mile of gravel we ran into Dave Mable logging some winter Dirty Du training in his running shoes. Rich gave smiling Dave a high five as we passed in opposite directions. Random.

We headed back East and north and made it back to town with just short of 3 hours completed, so we opted to ride back out 63rd and east on Park Avenue toward downtown.

I rode Rich through the East Village and around the route that we are planning for our fall criterium (mark your calendars for August 30th. Great course, big prizes).

We finished off at my gym and a big ol protein shake.

Time for a well-earned rest week.

New Years' Day Degree Ride (and then some)

When: Thursday, January 1st (New Years Day), 10:00 am start

Where: The start is by the Starbucks on 86th St across the street from American store.

What: Degree Ride hosted by DMCC The distance ridden will be the number of miles which corresponds to the temperature in degree at the start of the ride. For example if it is 18 degrees at 10:00 am the ride will be 18 miles. No registration, just show up and ride.

Weapon: Road, cross or mountain bike.

Route: The ride will be northwesterly from Starbucks and the exact route will be determined that day depending upon conditions. If there is snow or ice on the roads it is recommended to ride a mountain bike. If the streets are clear a road bike is okay.

Over-Achiever Bonus Miles: I am planning to continue riding (weather permitting) for a few additional miles.

Cronicles of Peoria

The Kirkwood Eagles ("Wood") as we fondly refer to them, will be playing in the tournament championship tonight at 7:30 after beating Kankakee (2008 NJCAA national runners up) by 34 points in a 1 sided smothering last night at the ICC sports complex in East Peoria.

Afterward, The Princess and I went our for dinner. We went to One World - a great college bistro located on the Bradley College campus. Andi had a pulled chicken sandwich, while dad opted for the Cuban. We had a great talk and she filled me in on all of the team and school topics. I love to listen to her laugh!

After my ride yesterday with my local host, Mike Honnold, he sent me an email with our Tuesday route, along with a link mapped at "map my route". pasted below is the route for today.



Andi doesn't play until 7:30 tonight and I need to check out of my hotel this morning. So, it looks like a full afternoon on the bike. I think I'll ride for a couple of hours before meeting Mike at 12:30 and then maybe catch a cup of java and then ride a couple more hours afterward. I'm hoping for a hundy (maybe 125)today.

Mike and Me

In my previous post I mentioned that I was in Peoria for my daughter's basketball tournament. And I connected with some folks who had a ride planned for today.

As it turned out, only one guy showed. Mike Honnold is the president of the local club (Proctor Cycling). He and his club host the cycling classic held ever summer.

We met on the West side of town on a parking lots and headed west into the sweet, rural IL blacktop.

I have ridden this area several times and really like terrain. Mike works at Caterpillar and has been a cycling enthusiast for 16 years. We had a nice ride and a nice chat for slightly over 2 hours.

Afterward, I followed him to the local Cervelo, Guru, Gary Fisher, Felt, North Face dealer. We chatted and hopefully recruited a few more folks to join us tomorrow.

Women's Basketball and winter bike rides

I'm in sunny Peoria, IL to watch Andi play in a tournament. I like Peoria. It is where the Proctor Cycling Classic is held. Unfortunately, 2 years ago a girl from xXx racing was struck by an oncoming truck and trailer while competing and was killed, so they no longer conduct the road race. But the crit still goes on in June. I like the course - wide (4-lane) turns and super fast.

Pasted below is a pic from me racing against a sea of blue and red Mackers in 2005. I am the guy who is being blocked in the back. This was one of my more memorable wins because I had to come around this large train at the line.


Another reason I like coming to Peoria is that there is a very nice old hotel called the Pere Marquette located in downtown. It has been here for decades and still has a nice ambiance. I am staying here for 3 days of Andi's basketball tournament.

After her game yesterday, I used my complimentary pass to a super nice health club and swam 3000 meters and participated in a yoga class.

Rather than staying in, I asked for a dinner recommendation at the front desk and found myself ponyed up to the bar at a quaint old lower level downtown steakhouse called "Jim's". I ordered the apple glazed pork chop. When it arrived my eyes nearly popped out! Look at this monster! I had already devoured half of it before I thought to snap a picture from my phone.

Andi's team won her first game on Sunday night by 23.

After dinner, when I returned to my room I did a google search to locate a possible ride for Monday and Tuesday. And wallah!~ I found a "Peoria Rides" website and sent off an email and received a response from Mike Honnold.

He and several others are planning to leave at 12:30 today for a 3+ hour ride. SCORE!

The temps are fore casted to be in the high 40's, bright sunshine and breezy. I am on the phone all morning in meetings but then at 12 bells, it's yabba, dabba doo time!

Last night I brought my Salsa Chili up to my room and spit-cleaned her. So, with bright white bar tape and a freshly lubed chain, I am off to make some new cycling friends.

What are you doing today?

T - 2.5 months

This morning the mercury read -5. Seems like a good time to start the countdown. So far, Pig, Pete, Kris, Steve, Rich and I are booked for Tucson the week of March 7th. Mt. Lemmon, here we come!

When less than 100 is epic

Tony Nichols, Pete Basso and I met several buddies at Starbucks this morning before the ride. Along with the guys from our group we adopted 4 families to help this year for Christmas. Unfortunately I had 4+ hours of bike work to get in before the forecasted nasty weather, so they did the shopping for us.

We headed out on our cross bikes westerly into nowhere with a light snowfall blanketing the gravel. The roads were perfect and with temperatures in the mid-20's we were all dressed appropriately and pretty comfortable. I rode in mostly zone 3 for about 2 hours before circling back to Starbucks where Pete and Tony had parked.

Along the way, we came across a small group of 4 doe standing in the road. When they noticed us, they bolted - 3 immediately hopped into the woods but the fourth just started running right down the middle of the road. Tony sprinted up to her and when he caught her, instead of darting into the woods with the other ladies, she just shifted into overdrive and kept running with TPod time-trialing along side of her. She kept running for nearly a mile. It looked like Tony was walking a dog. He said that she was just galloping along with her tongue wagging. Finally she wised up and pulled off.

Originally I planned to switch to my trainer to complete the last 2 hours but I was enjoying myself so much that I just opted to keep riding.

My day had started early. In fact, when I pulled out of my driveway at 6:00 am I had my blinky flashing because it was still dark.

By 11:00 the snow was falling heavily, and before I knew it the streets were mostly covered. I find it interesting that regular road slicks are totally impossible to ride in ice and snow, but by just adding a little tread (i.e. cross tires) my Salsa hooked up like it was on a rail.

I stayed in-town and finished of with just over 4 hours in (not counting time spent at the coffee shop). I would guesstimate that if I were the mileage tracking sort, that the odometer would register slightly under 100 new miles. Not technically "epic" by the Crabby Old Farts standards, but memorable none the less.

My legs are feeling heavy, but my head and heart are feeling happy.

Training with Intensity in December?

From a recent post in Cyclingnews.com by former CSC professional cyclist, Bobby Julich, "...I used to do long, slow miles as a way of building up my endurance. But I believe that mixing in some intensity during the off-season, especially focusing on your weaker areas, can be a big benefit. I think that it is a good idea to ride with others or even big groups. It is a great opportunity to meet new people and stoke the competitive fire again..."

I agree.
My old coach Donny Quixote started me on the right path by including some intensity, even in my fall base periods. I have taken that principal and adopted it into my current program.

I recently sent one of my workouts to the team. One of my mates questioned the zone 4 & zone 5 stuff in the plan. Here was the workout:

10m warm-up, then:

Z2 5 minutes

Z3 5 minutes

Z4 5 minutes

Z5 5 minutes

Z1 15 minutes

Z3 90 minutes

Cool down

My response was to him was: this week I will train approximately 20 hours. That's 1200 minutes - 10 minutes above Z3 and 1190 minutes at Z3 or less (maybe a few more minutes of intensity during weekend rides in the dirt - especially riding with Pistol Pete).

When you look at the overall effort for the week, it is still well within the endurance category, yet I have not completely let the higher intensity systems atrophy.

I find that if I maintain at least minimal connection to my entire range of fitness, when the time comes to begin adding back in the intensity, I am not in quite so much pain, and can deliver the big wattage for the entire duration of the interval.

The more I read, the more I hear other successful road cyclists taking a similar approach.

Tuesday in my Garage

Last night, as the snow fell in buckets Sara Broek, Pig Mitchell, Kris Kunze, Micah Moore, Steve Fuller and yours truly enjoy a toasty spinning session in my garage.

Kris, the team electrical engineer, stopped over in the afternoon and wired my new space heater so we could stay warm.

I am starting my second month of base training. So I got started early and had all of my hard stuff done just as the rest of the crew arrived (yes, even during base I'll do a few Z4 & Z5 intervals).

We are all doing endurance/steady state training this time of year, so I led the group through a few drills to work on our cadence and leg strength while making sure to keep the wattage below 300. We did a few individual leg drills and focused on changing up our position on the bike.

All total, I rode 3 hours and group logged just over 2.

I don't mind these indoor rides as long as I have friends to share the work. The time went by fast, and left me hoping for good weather later this week to go outside and enjoy the fresh snow at Denman's Woods.